1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a mobile or stationary traffic monitoring system for detecting violations of speed limits or other traffic laws by vehicle operators and issuing citations to an operator and/or vehicle owner suspected of a violation using a digital camera to capture images of the operator and/or the vehicle, transmitting the captured images and other relevant data to an analysis center where the images and data are analyzed to determine whether to issue a citation and, if so, to issue the citation or take other appropriate law enforcement measures. The invention is also directed to a method for capturing images of a vehicle and/or vehicle operator suspected of a traffic violation, determining the time and geographic location of the suspected violation, transmitting the images and other data to an analysis center, issuing citations to violators and deriving revenue therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Traffic violations, particularly speeding, are a major cause of accidents on roads and highways. A common method to catch speeders is to set up a stationary radar or laser site along a roadway to identify speeders and issue citations. According to this method, a police officer uses a radar or laser gun to determine the speed of an approaching vehicle. If the officer determines that the approaching vehicle is speeding, he directs the driver to pull over to the side of the road and issues a citation. A similar method is for a police officer to place the radar/laser gun in his police vehicle, use it to detect whether vehicles are speeding and then pursue and pull over any vehicle he observes speeding. Both methods require the police officer to stop the vehicle primarily to identify the operator for purposes of issuing a citation.
More recently, traffic control systems using cameras have been placed at traffic-lighted intersections to capture vehicle and license plate images of a vehicle running a red light and issue a citation by mail without having to stop the vehicle. However, the use of such traffic control systems requires legislation that specifically sanctions the practice of issuing a citation to a vehicle owner based on license plate information without identifying the vehicle operator.
Apart from the need to pull a vehicle over to issue a citation to the driver, the use of a radar/laser gun by a police officer, whether stationary or mobile, has many other drawbacks. For instance, when a vehicle is stopped along the side of a road by a police officer to issue a citation to the driver for a traffic violation, both the officer and the occupants of the stopped vehicle are at risk of being hit by other passing vehicles. When a police officer pursues a speeding vehicle in what has become known as a “high speed chase,” the officer's vehicle and the fleeing vehicle pose a serious danger to other travelers on the road. The police officer is also at risk when confronting an unknown and potentially dangerous driver and attempting to issue a citation to that driver. Moreover, large numbers of drivers have purchased detectors to alert them of the use of a radar/laser guns, and when alerted, a driver may quickly decelerate creating a danger of collision for vehicles traveling behind the decelerating vehicle. The use of CB radios to warn other drivers of a “speed trap” may have a similar result. The widespread use of such devices also diminishes the overall effectiveness of police use of radar/laser guns to detect speeding violations.
Additionally, the use of radar/laser guns place an added burden on the strained resources of a police department because officers must appear in court if a driver elects to contest or otherwise question the validity of a traffic citation. The primary reason for the officer's presence in court is to confirm the identity of the driver and to testify about the circumstances of the issuance of the citation.
The use of a high resolution digital imaging system to capture images and provide documentation of a variety of traffic violations provides a far safer and more productive alternative to the foregoing systems and methods currently in use. Such an imaging system is capable of taking digital images of a vehicle and the operator with sufficient resolution for identification purposes so that citations may be issued without having to pursue and stop the vehicle of a suspected violator. The images also serve as compelling evidence that may result in fewer court challenges and should relieve a police officer from court appearances merely to identify the vehicle operator.
Digital imaging and photographic technologies and imaging analysis technologies that are capable of capturing high resolution vehicle images from long distances for traffic monitoring and enforcement systems are known in the prior art. An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,042 to Nelson. The system of the Nelson patent comprises an apparatus that includes a camera for recording still or video images, an audio information recorder, a laser or radar speed detector, and a GPS receiver. The apparatus is mounted to the dashboard of a law enforcement vehicle and is operative to record photo images of the vehicle and vehicle license plate of a suspected speeder and imprint the vehicle speed, time and GPS-determined location onto the photo, all of which is stored for later evaluation. The operator of the apparatus in the law enforcement vehicle also records his or her observations on the audio recording device of the apparatus. At the end of a shift, the photos and audio recordings are recovered and reviewed to determine whether violations have occurred and citations should be issued.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,717 to Dunne et al. discloses a traffic control system that automatically captures an image of a vehicle and speed information associated with the vehicle and stores the image and information on a hard disk drive. The system uses a laser gun to determine whether a vehicle is speeding. The hard drive is later connected to a base station computer which is, in turn, connected to a LAN at which the information from the hard drive is compared with databases containing data such as vehicle registration information and the like. The system automatically prints a speeding citation and an envelope for mailing to the registered owner of the vehicle
U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,337 to Kupersmit discloses a stationary traffic control method and system for determining the speed of a vehicle by generating two images of a moving vehicle and calculating the vehicle speed by determining the distance traveled by the vehicle and the time interval between the two images. The system is capable of automatically looking up vehicle ownership information and issuing citations to the owner of a vehicle determined to be speeding.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,948,038 to Daly et al. discloses a method for processing traffic violation citations. The method includes the steps of determining whether a vehicle is violating a traffic law, recording an image of the vehicle committing the violation, recording deployment data corresponding to the violation, matching the vehicle information with vehicle registration information to identify the owner, and providing a traffic violation citation with an image of the vehicle, and the identity of the registered owner of the vehicle.
It would be desirable to provide a traffic violation monitoring system and method operable by law enforcement personnel as well as private citizens that captures high resolution digital images of a vehicle operator as well as digital images of the vehicle and vehicle license plate so as to positively identify the operator and vehicle involved in a traffic violation, not limited to speeding. It would also be desirable to provide such a system and method that uses advanced communications and GPS location technology to provide comprehensive violation data for transmission to a remote evaluation center for data analysis and issuance of citations. Such a system and method should desirably collect all the evidence needed to support a traffic citation against a court challenge with minimal involvement of law enforcement personnel and provide a financial incentive to private citizens to become involved in traffic monitoring.